16. INTERNATIONAL ICT SEAGULLS AND 6. LEADING SEAGULLS PROJECTS
PRESS RELEASE
The International ICT Seagulls Project that was designed by Dr Hayal Köksal to grow new generations that are part of the solution, not the problem is starting its 17th year. In addition to K-12 student teams (İmece Circles) and disabled teams, the project has been continuously improving since it started in 2003 and it has recently included in University/College students and community members such as; business people, local governors, NGO members and even parents. For example, MA and MS students’ teams of universities were also included in the Project in 2019.
The Project has been supported by the World Council for Total Quality and Excellence in Education (WCTQEE), which has been established by 25 world countries in India; UNESCO 2002 Peace-Awarded School_City Montessori School in Lucknow, India, Nepal QUEST and the Association for Innovative Collaboration (YİMEDER). It aims to raise new generations that think, question, and learn to find ways to solve. It is the prerequisite of the project to use “İmece Circles (SQC)” methodology, which was awarded by the World Bank in “2005 Turkey Creative Development Ideas Competition”, as well as the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) effectively.
Microsoft Turkey supported the Project, during the first years (2003-2009). Dr. Köksal trained hundreds of ICT Seagulls Project Leading Teachers in an in service training program which was organized by the Ministry of Education and Microsoft Turkey in 2006-2007 Academic year. Thus, all state schools in addition to private schools got the chance of taking part in the Project. The project has gained an international structure since 2006, and all the other countries have started to register it. India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, South Africa, USA and UK have become participants of it since then. Every participating team that completed the project is considered successful and get the chance of being assessed by peers and national-international jury members. Every two years, the award ceremony of the project is held at the CMS, Lucknow, India, with the cooperation of WCTQEE. More than 400 teams took part in the Project since the very beginning. It means we touched almost 5000 people through the Project to train qualified leaders.
This year, five teams registered to the Project, but only three of them could finalize the process. They were from India, Sri Lanka and Turkey. We congratulate them and wish more success.
1. City Montessori School, Kanpur Road, Lucknow, India: “SQC Pheonix” studied the civil society and insensitivity toward problems. High school 11th graders won the “Champion High School Award”.
2. R / EMBI / St. Anthony’s college, Rakwana, Sri Lanka: “SQC Dew Drops” tried to find solution of the English Grammar problems of Sri Lankan students at a middle school and they won the “Champion Middle School Award”.
3. Bahçeşehir University, Institute of Educational Sciences: “ELF Circle” was a team of Master’s students and they studied the Effects of TQM Applications to Teachers’ Job Satisfaction and won the “Champion MA Team Award”. The team leader Elif Yügen got the Special Award of Prof.Dr. Umit Serdaroğlu as the result of master of the team, Elif Yügen also got Dr. Umit Serdaroglu Special Award.
Registration has just started for the “17. International ICT Seagulls Projects”. There are four categories to register: 1. ICT Seagulls for K-12 students and teachers, 2 Leaders Seagulls for University students, 3. Challenged Seagulls for the disabled teams and 4. Community Seagulls for companies, NGOs, local governors and parents.
Please write to us to get more information about it:
[email protected] & [email protected]
Best regards and Good Luck.
Dr. Hayal KÖKSAL
Designer & General Coordinator